Greetings all… this past weekend we were part of a group of 12 that went to Kakamega Forest Reserve, which according to the Lonely Plant travel guide, “This superb small slab of virgin tropical rainforest is the only Kenyan vestige of the unique and once mighty Guineo-Congolian forest ecosystem”. Whew, I couldn’t have said that better. Anyway, our group, all from the IU House, hired a minibus (matatu) to take us on the approx 2 hr trip to the rainforest. We were a little crammed into the minibus as there were only 11 pasenger seats. Though it made for a good chance to get to know people better! Probably half the trip was on reasonably smooth asphalt with frequent potholes, the other half was on exceptionally potholed asphalt or dirt roads with a few smooth sections. Our driver was very adept at swerving to miss more potholes than he hit—regardless of which lane (or shoulder!) the bus was in. And we only had 1 flat tire to deal with.
We stayed at Rondo Retreat, which was a very nice facility with cabins scattered throughout its extensive, gardened grounds, and a small central dining room where tasty meals were served. We met up with a guide at the hotel who took us on three hike/walks over Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Some highlights included seeing a couple types of gigantic birds (great blue turaco and the casqued hornbill), the sunrise hike which started at 5:30am and lots of tropical foliage. It didn’t even rain on us in the rainforest. Yay! But the highlight was all of the monkeys we saw. Allison was going so crazy with our new camera and its zoom lens that I decided to call her the monkey hunter! Above is a picture of a colubus monkey. We safely returned Sunday evening tired and a bit sore from all the hiking. A hot shower back at the IU House felt SO good…
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